For many decades, researchers thought the closest relatives of papaya were certain trees from the Andes, the so-called highland papayas. A study employing DNA sequences from all species of the papaya family instead revealed that the closest relatives of papaya are three herbaceous species and a small tree with stinging hairs occurring from Mexico to Guatemala and El Salvador.

A joint research led by the Smithsonian Institution (US), Saint Louis University (US) and Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela) resulted in the discovery of an exciting new species from the daisy family.

New genetic research led by the Genographic Project consortium shows a distinctive ancestry for the Uros populations of Peru and Bolivia that predates the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and may date back to the earliest settlement of the Altiplano, or high plain, of the central Andes some 3,700 years ago.

Mount Carihuairazo is a volcanic caldera, most likely extinct, that is located in Ecuador. It is part of the Cordillera Occidental in the Andes Mountain range and reaches an elevation of 16,463 feet. This volcano, which is neighbored by Mount Chimborazo, is part of the Reserva de Produccion Faunistica Chimborazo, which protects the ecosystems and habitats of the vicuña,llama, and alpaca, all native species to the area. The volcano’s name is a mixture of three Quichu words Cari, huay, and...

The Yellow-Tailed Woolly Monkey (Oreonax flavicauda) is a New World monkey that is native to Peru. It is a rare primate species that is found only in the Peruvian Andes, in the departments of Amaxonas and San Martin, along with the bordering areas of La Libertad, Huanuco, and Loreto. This woolly monkey was, at first, under the Lagothrix genera with other woolly monkeys, but because of debatable primary sources, they have been placed under the Oreonax genera. This genus has been suggested to...

The mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque), also known as the wooly tapir, is one of four species of tapir. This tapir is named after a mythical creature, called “La Pinchaque” that is thought to live in the same areas as the mountain tapir. The range of this tapir is small, including the páramo and cloud forest areas in the Eastern and Central Cordilleras mountains in Colombia, Ecuador, and the far north of Peru. It prefers to live at high elevations between 6,600 and 14,100 feet, therefore...

The vicuÃ±a (Vicugna vicugna), is a camelid species native to South America. They are most commonly found in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and northwest Argentina. Peru has the largest number. Bolivia has great number of wild vicuÃ±as in the Southwestern side of the country. It lives in the high alpine regions of the Andes. VicuÃ±as live in the grass lands and plains in the mountain regions at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,500 meters (13000 to 18000 feet).
The vicuÃ±a is considered more...

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.